Building cultural empathy and deconstructing Whiteness in counselor education

Counselor training that does not attend to dynamics of cultural differences and oppression can run the risk of promoting false empathy that serves the voyeuristic purpose of the counselor rather than achieving accurate empathy for the client. In this article, we discuss the differences between true and false empathy and how Whiteness, racial identity and culture, and classroom dynamics can impact the ability to engage in cultural empathy development. We present a model for cultural empathy training that attends to each of these dynamics.     

The Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale: A Valid Criterion of Counselor Effectiveness?

Should the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale (CERS) be used as a criterion measure of counselor effectiveness in studies attempting to identify correlates of counselor effectiveness? The validity of recent recommendations regarding the use of certain factors of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) to select persons for counselor training programs, where the CERS was the criterion measure, is challenged. Relationships between the three scales of the CERS and levels of empathy, respect, and empathy offered in a counseling relationship were investigated; only one of the hypothesized relationships was found (p < .05).     

高校辅导员制与本科生导师制的冲突与平衡

为了保证培养质量,各高校纷纷实施本科生导师制。本科生导师制和原有的辅导员制产生冲突,主要表现为育人内容的冲突导致多头管理,意识层面原因导致相互推诿,本导配备不合理导致辅导员工作量加大,通过提倡部分辅导员本导化,促进本导专业化和增强本导和辅导员的合作意识等措施可以有效地解决这些冲突,从而达到平衡,促进学生更好地成长。     

The Effects of Professional Counselor Training on Empathy: Continued Cause for Concern

The evidence reviewed, especially that from the most methodologically sound studies, indicates that professional training in counseling generally fails to increase trainees' empathy. Further, professional status may establish social distance between counselor and client, and posttraining experience in counseling cannot be counted on to have uniformly positive, empathy-enhancing effects. The review points to the needs for: (a) the incorporation into professional programs of brief, effective empathy-skills training, (b) supplementing intellectual program selection methods with more counseling-relevant measures, (c) defining and upgrading of acceptable posttraining empathy levels and retention of training effects, and (d) research into differences between professional programs that do and do not enhance empathy.     

Utilizing Improvisation to Teach Empathy Skills in Counselor Education

Empathy development is foundational to counselor training, yet there is scant research on techniques for teaching empathy aside from traditional microskills models. The authors discuss empathy as a skill set, highlight how improvisation (improv) can be used to enhance training, and describe how to incorporate improv activities within the classroom.     

高职院校辅导员助理队伍建设实证分析——以闽西职业技术学院机械工程系为例

高职院校新生辅导员在新生入学教育阶段,肩负了大量的事务性工作,而辅导员助理队伍可以帮助新生尽快适应大学生活、减轻辅导员工作压力、提高学生干部素质,给高职院校新生教育管理工作注入新的活力。高职院校系部应从健全各项管理制度、增加培训内容和优化培训形式、建立有效的激励机制等方面强化辅导员助理队伍建设。     

Enhancing student learning of research methods through the use of undergraduate teaching assistants

By using a quasi-experimental design, in this study, we test the effect of undergraduate teaching assistants on student learning. Data were collected from 170 students enrolled in four sections of a quantitative research methods course, two sections without undergraduate teaching assistants and two sections with undergraduate teaching assistants, over two semesters. Results indicate that having undergraduate teaching assistants in the classroom can result in higher student performance. Students in the sections with undergraduate teaching assistants earned higher grades, were more likely to pass the course with a C or higher and performed better on half of the student learning outcomes than students in the sections without an undergraduate teaching assistant. Based on the overwhelmingly positive results on student learning, we would recommend the active use of undergraduate teaching assistants in the classroom, but especially for courses that students find challenging.     

Finger Blood Volume Responses of Counselors,Counselor Trainees,and Non-Counselors to Stimuli from an Empathy Test

Measures of 4 physiological variables were obtained while 30 counselors, 30 counselor trainees, and 30 graduate science majors were evaluating a series of dramatic dialogs and slides taken from an empathy test. Significantly more vasoconstriction, indicative of arousal, was observed in the counselors and counselor trainees than in the science majors. This finding is consistent with the proposal that empathy is related to physiological responses and serves as contributing evidence for criteria in the selection, training, and evaluation of counselors.     

Training Counselors to Work with Disabled Clients: Cognitive and Affective Components

This study examines the relationship of cognitive complexity, counselor anxiety, and client disability condition to accurate empathy on the part of students in training. A sample (n = 28) of students in a graduate counseling program observed a series of eight vignettes of counseling interviews (four clients with disabilities and four without disabilities) and reported a verbal counseling response to a client statement. A significant main effect was found for the cognitive complexity variable only (p < .05). A significant interaction among cognitive complexity, anxiety, and client disability condition (p < .01) indicated that all three factors interact to influence empathy. Implications for research and the training of counselors are discussed.     

Effects of Short-Term Training Upon Accurate Empathy and Non-Possessive Warmth

Twelve experienced counselors engaged in an intensive 40-hour training program over a two-week period. It was hypothesized that they would make rapid gains in accurate empathy and non-possessive warmth and that counselors initially highest on these dimensions would show the greatest increase during training. There was a substantial and significant increase in accurate empathy, but counselors initially high (N = 6) and counselors initially low (N = 6) made approximately equal gains on empathy. No overall gains were made on nonpossessive warmth, and there was evidence suggesting that some decrease may have occurred, particularly within those counselors initially providing high levels of warmth. The pre-training empathy and warmth levels of these counselors were compared with those in other studies conducted in training programs not providing specific training in empathy and warmth. The comparison data were consistent with the hypothesis that gains on these dimensions occur after the initial graduate training program.     

Anxiety and Empathy in a Counseling and Guidance Institute

This article investigates the relationship between anxiety and the development of empathy in counselor trainees during a full-year counseling and guidance institute. Anxiety was assessed three times during the program and empathy twice. It was found that anxiety decreased significantly during the course of the institute. No significant relationship was found between anxiety and empathy changes. It appears that such changes in trainees may be related to length of training. It is suggested that research concerning effects of training be longitudinal and focus on trainee change throughout the training period.     

The Skilled Counselor Training Model: Skills Acquisition,Self‐Assessment,and Cognitive Complexity

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of the Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM; M. H. Smaby, C. D. Maddux, E. Torres‐Rivera, & R. Zimmick, 1999) in teaching counseling skills and in fostering counselor cognitive complexity. Counselor trainees who completed the SCTM had better counseling skills and higher levels of cognitive complexity than did counselor trainees who did not receive the training. Before training, both experimental and control group participants overestimated their skills performance. The control group persisted in this overestimation after training, whereas students who completed the SCTM had a much more accurate self‐assessment. Results suggest that skills‐based training may improve counseling skills and cognitive complexity in counselor trainees.     

Modeling,Praise, and Criticism in Teaching Empathic Responding

This study employs a factorial design to investigate the efficacy of all possible combinations of modeling, praise, and criticism as a means of teaching empathic responding to counselor trainees. Measures of empathy were taken on 64 female introductory psychology students at the beginning of an experimental session and following each of two training segments. Results indicate a significant effect for modeling and stage of training. There was a significant interaction between modeling and stage of training such that subjects in the modeling conditions were rated higher in empathy than those in the no-modeling condition at the mid- and postmeasure but not at the premeasure. Results are in agreement with one previously published study but are inconsistent with two others. Discussion focuses on the critical elements of effective feedback techniques.     

Counseling Students’ Experiences in an Islamic-Based Counseling Course

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of learning and consequent development of twelve students enrolled in a four-year undergraduate counselling program at a higher institution of learning in Malaysia. The students’ ages ranged from 20 to 24 years. Participants outlined their learning experiences after taking a three-credit semester-long course on Islamic-based counseling, which was an attempt at integrating religion and spirituality into counselor training. An experiential learning theory served as the framework of reference, and a qualitative research design was adopted. Results revealed four major themes: (1) increased understanding of counseling, (2) better understanding in regard to the self and relationship with God, (3) applicability to daily practice, and (4) enhancing professional competence as a counselor. Finally, implications for research, counselor education and training, and clinical practice are discussed.     

Counseling and Counselor Education in Colombia,South America: A Case for Undergraduate Preparation

It is the purpose of this article to discuss the undergraduate counselor education program at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, South America, and the need for the new occupation of school counseling in Colombia. The positive aspects of undergraduate counselor training in the United States are also discussed.     

Counselor Gullibility

In this article the author argues that it is mandatory that counselors suspend any disbelief in their clients during the early stages of counseling. Disbelieving interferes with counselor spontaneity and empathy. Indeed, the real work of counseling cannot start until clients perceive counselors as gullible. I offer a justification for being gullible during the initial sessions, along with suggestions for what can be done to develop appropriate levels of gullibility in counselors in training.     

Moral Development and Empathy in Counseling

Of interest to counselor educators are variables associated with helper empathy. The authors investigated the relationship between empathy and moral development. Students enrolled in a facilitative skills development course completed a measure of moral development before making their first counseling audiotape. After approximately 12 weeks of skills training, they were subsequently rated for their demonstration of empathic understanding to client statements on an analog videotape and on a counseling audiotape made for their course evaluation. Empathy ratings of their responses to the analog videotape correlated .61 (p < .001) with moral development scores and .35 (p < .05) with supervisory empathy ratings of their final audiotape and moral development scores. Implications for counselor education are discussed.     

高校学生辅导员助理对大学生思想政治教育的影响

高校是培养人才的阵地,随着高校的扩招、教育模式的转变、素质教育的深入,学生工作面临许多新机遇和新问题,如何发挥学生辅导员助理的优势做好学生工作,是摆在思想政治教育工作者面前的一大课题。文章探讨了设置学生辅导员助理的必要性、优势,分析了学生辅导员助理对大学生日常思想政治教育的影响,指出了学生辅导员助理工作存在的问题,并从加强培训学习、建立制度、融入学生生活几方面提出了提高学生辅导员助理工作质量的对策。     

Developing a Training Course for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants

An undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) training course was developed using existing best practices and Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives as a framework. Course goals included developing assistants’ content knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognition regarding teaching. Across three semesters, UTAs’ (N?=?68) pre- and post-test responses showed significant increases in their teaching-related knowledge, confidence in their skills, consideration of a teaching-related career, and perceived benefits of being a UTA. The course provides an efficient method by which assistants learn to support students and faculty in a range of undergraduate courses, serving as a potential model for other teaching assistantship programs.